Dr. Michael McQuary, Ed D
Biography 2025

Dr. Michael McQuary was born in the mountains of Idaho and moved southwest, living and attending school in Washington, Oregon, and California, before moving to the Himalayan Mountains in Northern India and returning to California, settling in San Diego. If you’re a business, talk about how you started and share your professional journey. Explain your core values, your commitment to customers, and how you stand out from the crowd. Add a photo, gallery, or video for even more engagement.

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Dr. McQuary received a BA from UC-Berkeley, a MA from Fresno State, a Doctorate from University of Southern California, and Post Doctorate Training at Harvard University.

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He had pre-professional job experience as a Railroad Fireman, Home Construction, and Manufacturing Quality Control Inspector (Titan Missile, Polaris Missile, Off Shore Oil Rigs, and San Francisco-Oakland BART Transbay Tube) before initiating a professional career as Teacher, Principal, District and County School Administrator; as well as, international service with the Tibetan Children’s Village, in Dharamsala, India.

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Retiring in San Diego, California, Dr. McQuary has been active in his community with multiple local, county, state, national, and international organizations, including service with Rotary (President), Pacific Beach Town Council (Director), San Diego Unified School District (School Board Member and President), California School Board Association (Delegate), San Diego International Sister Cities Association (Chair), Sister Cities International Southern California Chapter (Director), and Sister Cities International (Director, California State Representative).

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Dr. McQuary’s work with Sister Cities has been guided by the 1956 vision of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who hoped to unite communities around the world, end global conflicts, and promote world peace. President Eisenhower suggested that people-to-people relationship building and citizen diplomacy developed through city-to-city partnerships that promote civic, business, community, educational, cultural, and sport engagement would be the best vehicle to unit international communities for good, which
became the foundational idea for Sister Cities International (SCI). https://sistercities.org/

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One year later in 1957, San Diego began its Sister City Program by partnering with Yokohama (Japan), resulting in the Japanese Friendship Garden at Balboa Park and a number of student exchange programs.

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San Diego now has 16 Sister Cities and 8 Friendship Cities in 23 countries: Spain, Brazil, Philippines, Scotland, Afghanistan, Korea, Mexico, Panama, Australia, Taiwan, Ghana, Russia, Poland, China, Japan, Kenya, Ireland, Somalia, Ukraine, France, Portugal, Austria, and Israel.

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San Diego’s Sister Cities Association has partnered with civic and community organizations, businesses, schools, and universities on a number of very successful international programs and projects. https://www.sandisca.org/#!event-list.

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One of these partnerships is The Entrepreneural Academy (TEA), which engages middle and high school students in the development of business literacy and entrepreneurial skill. This state of the art program equips students with the tools they need to excel and thrive in today's dynamic
entrepreneurial landscape and global economy. https://www.my-tea.org/